An organic electroluminescence (EL) device is generally composed of an anode, a cathode, and one or more organic thin film layers sandwiched between the anode and the cathode. When a voltage is applied between the electrodes, electrons are injected from the cathode and holes are injected from the anode into a light emitting region. The injected electrons recombine with the injected holes in the light emitting region to form excited states. When the excited states return to the ground state, the energy is released as light.
Many researches have been made on the applications of organic EL device to display, etc. because of its possibility of a wide selection of emission colors by using various emitting materials in a light emitting layer. Particularly, the research on the materials which emit three primary red, green, and blue colors has been made most actively, and the intensive research has been made to improve their properties.
One of the most important problems involved in an organic EL device is how to achieve high emission efficiency. To obtain an organic EL device with high emission efficiency, it has been known to form a light emitting layer by doping a several percent of dopant material into a host material.
As a material for such an organic EL device, Patent Literatures 1 and 2 disclose a compound having a five-membered ring wherein one side is shared with a bicyclic fused ring and another side is shared with a benzene ring, Patent Literature 3 discloses a compound having a five-membered ring wherein one side is shared with a tricyclic fused ring and another side is shared with a benzene ring, and Patent Literature 4 discloses a compound having a five-membered ring wherein one side is shared with a fused ring and another side is shared with a different fused ring.